This invention relates to method and apparatus for producing optical components usable with coherent light. A number of developments have been reported and studied recently which relate to guided-wave propagation of coherent light, among which are those which utilized photolithographic techniques. For example, as described in an article by S. E. Miller, pages 199-205, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. QE-8, No. 2, February 1972, a sputtered film of refractive index n.sub.2 is applied to a substrate and a subsequent film of index n.sub.1 (n.sub.2 &gt;n.sub.1) is then provided and is coated with photoresist material. An image of the desired optical circuit is developed in conventional fashion on the film of index n.sub.1 using visible or ultraviolet radiation to expose the photoresist, and chemical etching of the film of index n.sub.1 is effected. Finally, a covering layer of index n.sub.2 is sputtered on the exposed portions of the first film and the remaining portions of the second film.
Because of losses in propagated radiation due to waveguide edge roughness obtained with this technique, the photoresist has been exposed by electron beams with resultant waveguide wall smoothness suitable for reducing losses in propagated radiation to acceptable levels.
An alternative technique utilizing photolithography involves forming a mask of locally exposed photoresist coating on a fused quartz substrate and implanting ions into the substrate through the mask slightly to raise the refractive index in the exposed, localized areas of the substrate.
Various synthetic resinous materials have been used for surface wave propagation of coherent light, as for example epoxy films compressed between glass plates as described by R.Shubert and J. H. Harris, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techl, vol. MTT-16, pp. 1048-1054, 1968. Integrated optical circuits employing shaped structure of the same thickness of the film, and whose dielectric constant is intermediate between that of the base and that of the film, and shaped to conform with the usual lens laws is suggested.
Other techniques involving synthetic resin films have also been suggested.